Squeezy Review

The premise of Squeezy is that you are a spacefaring snake-like creature. You land on alien worlds and gobble up fuel blobs as you slither along the ground. You get bonus points for gobbling up several blobs in a row, and you must also deal with enemies and dangerous obstacles. Once you've gobbled up enough fuel, you are able to return to your ship and blast off to the next level.

It's not a terrible premise. Unfortunately, the problem with Squeezy are the controls. They just don't work well. In a bid to mimic the way a real snake might move, there's only left and right moves, either of which sends you spinning in a circle if you hold it too long. In order to make any forward progress, you have to weave side to side, but Squeezy zigs and zags so quickly to each side that it's very difficult to get him to move with accuracy and virtually impossible to line him up in such a way as to rack up big points. He also gets a burst of speed after turning so far, making him even harder to control on curves and more likely to careen into a spiky obstacle or bad guy. I was so frustrated with the controls by the third level that I almost put the game down right there.

This is something that I think the devs were aware of, given the way levels are designed. For example, on the sixth level, where your job is to squeeze a group of enemies to death, the game has a ten minute clock. Why? Because it will take you that long to maneuver Squeezy accurately enough to catch and successfully surround the hopping, dodging bad guys ... and we're only talking about eight of them, all out in the open near the ship.

There is a certain attraction to the clean, cartoony design of Squeezy, and the funky, whistle-infused soundtrack is kind of catchy. Unfortunately, the controls really saps the fun out of this game. Unless the devs release a significant overhaul, this is one game you'll probably want to avoid.